The Celtics have started extension talks with Payton Pritchard, sources tell Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Although Pritchard’s representatives are talking to the front office about a long-term deal, there’s still “a gap to close” before an agreement can be finalized, Weiss adds.
The 25-year-old guard figures to have a much larger role in a revamped Boston backcourt after offseason trades that sent out Marcus Smart and Malcolm Brogdon and brought in Jrue Holiday. Playing time has been an issue for Pritchard, who expressed a desire to be traded in February because he wasn’t seeing consistent minutes.
That shouldn’t be a problem anymore, as Pritchard’s smooth shooting stroke makes him a welcome backcourt partner for Holiday or Derrick White. Pritchard has connected at 40% from three-point range during his three seasons in Boston.
There’s more on the Celtics:
- Coach Joe Mazzulla was preparing to utilize more double-big lineups after Boston traded for Kristaps Porzingis, but those plans have changed with Robert Williams being sent to Portland in the Holiday deal, notes Jay King of The Athletic. Luke Kornet should have a larger role with Williams gone and may see time next to Porzingis, but Mazzulla will likely rely on smaller lineups with the current roster. The Celtics are bringing in Wenyen Gabriel and could look to add more frontcourt help, with King noting that Bismack Biyombo, Dewayne Dedmon and Gorgui Dieng are all free agents, along with Blake Griffin, whom president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said the team would like to bring back if he doesn’t retire.
- The Celtics had to consider Holiday’s next contract when deciding to acquire him, per Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. The 33-year-old guard will become eligible for an extension on February 22, but he’ll only be able to add two more years to his current deal, if he declines his $39.4MM option for 2024/25. If he waits until six months after the trade date, he can add four years and will have the choice of extending at a lower starting salary than his player option under changes made in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Gozlan points out that Holiday can also pick up the option and extend on a “team-friendly” deal similar to what Porzingis did.
- Boston’s team salary will reach $222.6MM once the team signs a 14th player, increasing its tax penalty by $14.4MM for this season, Gozlan adds. With Jaylen Brown‘s super-max deal taking effect next year, team payroll is set to rise into the $260MM range. That figure could increase to $350MM to $400MM in 2025/26, Gozlan notes, when Jayson Tatum‘s expected super-max takes effect, if the club extends Holiday and White.
- The Celtics have options to improve their roster even after sending two first-round picks to Portland to acquire Holiday, per Brian Robb of MassLive. Boston still has first-rounders to trade in 2024, 2026 and 2031, along with eight second-round picks through 2030. The team also has a $6.2MM TPE from the Grant Williams trade.
Payton Pritchard fans are soon to see just what a disaster having this guy eating minutes in your playoff rotation will be.
Absolute toast defensively.
You can hide in the Regular Season. Not the playoffs.
3rd stringers aren’t usually versatile. I saw Isaiah Thomas play defense so my bar is set pretty low.
Oh no, it’s going to be so horrible!
What will the Celtics ever do?
You know the Celtics are doing well when trolls like Kurtis and Very Barry try to drag the Celtics on every single post.
Yeah, Barry, I think perhaps they might split the backcourt minutes in the playoffs between Holliday, White, and Brown. Don’t you?
Oh, what a disaster that will be.
An extension for Payton Pritchard? How? Why? He never got on the court last season so he hasn’t had an opportunity to play up to his talent. So of course Celts want to sign him at likely an underpay. Now these posters who judge Payton “toast” may be right … but if Payton believes in himself I’d hold off, see if he gets rotation minutes, and if not ask r demand to get traded. Trading Smart, Grant, Brogdon & TimeLord means there’s little loyalty.
“Disaster?” “Eating minutes?” “Toast?” Hope this poster has credentials to make these comments. Actually, I’d enjoy Payton making him eat his own words.
As much as I like Holiday, this is bad move for the Celtics. They were already weak in the front court, now getting rid of Rob makes things even worse.
Not to mention, their defense was at their best when Rob was on the floor. Obviously Holiday is a great defender but perimeter defense wasn’t never an issue with them
The biggest issue, is for a team that cries about fatigue, they have completely destroyed their depth. Pritchard is a baller but limited. Brisset is decent, but to being the only versatile player off the bench is probably way above his level of quality. Horford is old ASF and the rest of the roster is trash and doesn’t belong in the NBA.
Healthy, they will look good against perimeter teams. Struggle against big teams. One injury to a starter will end their playoff run.
I agree with you Kurtis. After the euphoria of picking up Holiday has worn off a day later, we can see their depth is gone.
They’ve totally remade the roster from toughness, grittiness and defense to finesse, shooting, and small ball. Not sure that is going to work out well for them.
With their salary cap issues coming up as the article states, Brad Stevens went from genius to, “well let’s see how this is going to workout.”
Their depth has been decimated.
Let me get this straight Celtic fans. You once again got blasted by Miami in the playoffs.
You have now responded with a defensive specialist who Jimmy Butler dropped 53 points on in the playoffs. On a team with Giannis and Brook Lopez protecting the rim. Jrue now only hopes to have 36-year old Al Horford and a 30+ Porzingis, who already has foot issues, and has never seen May or June NBA basketball.
And you are going to extend a 33 year old Jrue Holiday??? Jrue absolutely wanted to go to the Celtics because they would extend him. He had the ability to make his deal an expiring contract.
Celtics about to have $1 billion worth of contracts between Brown, Tatum, Holiday and Porzingis. Crazy!
They’re going for it and then they’ll trade people if it doesn’t work out. Great moves now but we’ll have to see what the trade market looks like with the new CBA if it doesn’t work. Still, they’re trying to win championships and have probably made the best moves from any team outside of maybe Denver and OKC.
MIA was also one of the 3 teams bidding on Holiday, with each one acknowledging that Holiday agreeing to an extension was a big part of why they were pursuing him. Whatever flaws he has, and whatever ominous things will result from his extension, it seems that MIA wasn’t troubled by them.
The difference between MIA and Boston, Miami has a strong history of developing players like Strus and Vincent. They can do it again. Miami is also a team players want to play for, they can get solid buyout players. Boston doesn’t have that
Wouldn’t that make it an even worse move for MIA to take on Holiday extended (than it was for BOS)-? Yet, MIA was not only willing to do so, but anxious.
Holiday wanted to come to Boston kurtis blows.
“Strong history” and then names 2 guys. Celtics have “developed” plenty of undrafted players: Daniel Theis, Javonte Green, Sam Hauser…
Porzingis and is 28 stupid
I’m not a Celtics fan at all, but it’s kind of hard to take people seriously when they say the Celtics defense is gone without Williams. As though he actually played. He was either injured or playing through injury for most of his career. The Celtics had problems with perimeter defense, which they’ve addressed with one of the best defensive guards in the league, and playmaking, which they improved (again) by adding Jrue and giving White a bigger role. There are going to be some growing pains adjusting to playing Tatum at the 4 more often, but Porzingis is still a quality defender and so is Horford. Adding young guys like Lamar Stevens (who is way better than anyone who didn’t follow the Cavs thinks; there is a *reason* they trusted him with slowing down guys like Luka and LeBron in the regular season, because he’s fully capable of it and still has room to improve), Jordan Walsh, Nemiaas Queeta and Dalano Banton to address the obvious depth issues makes sense, as all of them are quality defenders, and the C’s don’t need much offensive depth as they have Tatum, Brown, Porzingis, and Jrue capable of dropping 20 points any time and Derrick White being a quality sixth man *and* defender, plus guys like Hauser, Pritchard, and Brisette who can be effective on offense with minimal touches (yes, the first two are mid defenders, shocking. Are they just supposed to pull perfectly rounded bench pieces out of thin air?).
Could they use more frontcourt depth? Yeah, probably. Is it some kind of dire disaster now that they traded 1 (one) guy who can’t stay healthy? F no. Address it at the trade deadline, or even early in the season if it becomes an issue. They still have the ability to flip either their 2024 or 2025 picks. Or hell, sign Biyombo, Nerlens Noel, Dwayne Deadmon, or Derrick Favors. They can still play defense and won’t cost much money.
“But their future!” That was always going to depend on Tatum and Brown, and they weren’t going to stay without both contending *and* shelling out a lot of money. And there were *already* major questions about their core as a championship team, because Brown can’t dribble and both he and Tatum are mid at creating for their teammates, despite their other strengths. They basically had to address the offensive hole in the middle, because Williams and Horford both weren’t great on offense. And they did so with a borderline All-Star they got on the cheap, who can also play defense. Yeah, it’s a gamble. Because there were NEVER going to be painless paths to improve when the roster is both that good and that pricey. Either sit and do nothing, or take a gamble. Those were their only choices.
Also, I have WAY more faith in Boston’s ability to keep Porzingis healthy than Dallas, New York, or Washington (one of whom didn’t want him there, the latter two were garbage during his tenure in each place). And also more faith in his feet being healthy than Time Lord’s knees. Both were very concerning, but Time Lord’s is more so because it compromises his ability to do the main thing he does at an elite level, and that’s defend guys taller than him and protect the rim.
Celtics had a very strong defense TWO years ago. Last year, the defense was not the same. They have now taken further steps backward defensively especially on the frontcourt. Rim protection is going to be a major issue. What happens when Porzingis gets hurt??? You just traded Rob Williams …. For another perimeter guy.
If you are trying to win right now …. Why were you not burning up the phone of the Phoenix Suns for Ayton?? He makes sense with the rest of the roster that is assembled. He was just traded in a low-ball deal for Nurkic. You are about to pay the same amount of money he makes to Jrue Holiday. Rob Williams for Ayton ….. That would have made sense, even though you still lose a bit of rim protection. You could have then held on to Marcus Smart because you would have had no use for Porzingis. Ayton doesn’t bring an injury history.
Ayton isn’t a good defender. He has never *been* a good defender. He’s a mid-tier defender and good *rebounder*, but his actual defense is forgettable. Porzingis had more contests, more contests per minute, AND forced opponents to shoot worse than Ayton did from *every range*. Porzingis is a superior rim protector to him even if all he does is stand around doing nothing, and he offers more than just rim protection, as he’s a very high-level defender in *drop coverage*, which Boston loves to run *all the time*.
Ayton is so bland on offense and can only score out of the pick and roll, whereas Porzingis can run plays for teammates out of the high post, shoot, attack in the low post (he was one of the best at it last season), *and* score in the pick and roll either as the roller OR off ball. The only advantages from Ayton are rebounding (slightly better) and health. Unless the Suns got depth out of the Ayton trade (like they did with Portland and Milwaukee, getting three wing defenders *and* a Center), they weren’t trading him. Boston would not have been able to make that trade work without giving up an arm and a leg.
Also, last year the Celtics had a #3 defensive rating in the entire league. They dropped by one spot relative to 21-22, and less than one ppg. What are you even talking about? That’s such a small drop it’s within the year-over-year variance of an identical roster. Considering they had an unplanned coaching change, their defense was fantastic.
tl;dr the Celtics were the favorites to win the East for a *reason* last year, and losing to the Heat going *insane* doesn’t change that. That wasn’t something anyone could have accounted for. Also Porzingis >>>>>> Ayton.
Rob Williams played in every single playoff game last year
And 35 regular season games. Easily could have gone the other way.
It’s a great time to be a Celtics fan. They have “on paper” the best team in the league. And still have the best ability to make a trade for Luka, Embiid, or Giannis whenever one of them asks for a trade. Jaylen brown is either going to win a ring or be the cornerstone to a trade for one of the top players in the league. The so called lack of depth is laughable. Who ever comes off the bench (Horford or White) as the 6th man will be the best in the league. As much as I loved smart and Rob it will now be Tatum as the Alpha on the team. They have shown year in year out they are willing to make moves to go all in. Yet keep enough value to be involved in any move they want to make to upgrade.
Tatum and Jaylen started their careers in the ECF and haven’t looked back since. They are one of the best run organizations in sports. Bringing in two players like Holliday and Porzingis will cause Jaylen to step his game up. And if no one has noticed both he and Tatum improve each and every year.
Lack of depth and big men is a problem on every single team in the league and always will be. As for the salary cap argument. Let’s be real the nba teams will just figure it out like they always do. Especially a market like Boston. If they used that argument to not make upgrades they would just turn the fan base away. Some teams should never be allowed to use that excuse. Ex. LA, NY, GS.
Losing Brogden and Grant Williams will not hurt this team. Brogden was terrible in the playoffs and Grant Williams will be considered a terrible signing by the trade deadline. He was not even in the rotation for 80% of the playoffs. He’s a hard worker and valuable locker room guy which is valuable. He’s a Udonis Haslem type but to think he is a make or break type of talent is just not reasonable. He’ll be nothing more than a 8th player of the bench.
I do not like the Porzingis trade as much as most because the Celtics play a second season every year and I just don’t see him holding up for the long run. I would have much rather taken Ayton for Pennies. But if it doesn’t work they will just take another gamble next year.
Luka will be available at some point and my prediction is he will want to play with Tatum.
Denver is better on paper. Milwaukee is better on paper. Phoenix is better on paper. The Knicks are better on paper. Clippers are better on paper. Yes, the Clippers. Zubac gets to battle traditional 5-man against Celtics. Kawhi and PG better than Tatum and Brown. They both can dribble, and are better defensively.
And … Boston still can’t beat Miami!
You’re obviously a celtics fan trolling. No one is this stupid
Sorry but you are delusional. The Knicks!!!! lol
Depth is going to be a big concern and I could see rebounding and rim protection also being an issue. KP is a very soft 5 although tall. Horford is kinda undersized and old for the 5 but good both offensively and defensively. For now tho depth is the issue which need to be fixed…
Kornet is non guaranteed, Svi and Banton both have 200k guarantees. I just think there’s better players out there on the market still.
Nerlens Noel I’d argue is better than most those other mentioned bigs. JaMychal Green could be solid as a back up 4 as would TJ Warren as a bench 3. Then there’s Will Barton, Terrance Ross, Terrance Davis as back up SG options.
Cut Kornet and Svi, already have 1 open roster spot from the trade. Then fill them with Blake Griffin, Nerlens Noel and Terrance Davis.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Derrick White come off the bench and lead the second unit. Would also help cover Pritchards poor defence and provide some impact.
Holiday Brown Tatum KP Horford
Pritchard White Walsh Griffin Noel
Davis Brissett Stevens
Biggest competition will be the bucks and you’ll want to play big against Giannas and BLopez and by doing so Dame is up against Holiday. In turn you’d be giving Connaughton a tough assignment with Jaylen Brown.
KP is not soft. His defensive numbers last season rivaled Jarrett Allen, the leader in individual defensive rating in the East. Opponents shot 11 percentage points worse than the league average at the rim with him as the closest defender, and he contested the 12th most shots in the league *overall* despite playing something like the 50th most minutes. The guys ahead of him almost universally played many more games than him, only Myles Turner excepted. That’s the opposite of soft. Plus he was one of the best post scorers this past season, which basically requires you to attack opposing players.
And his rebounding numbers are lower because he prioritized individual defense and contests over grabbing boards. The Cavs (best defense in the league) as a team did the same strategy as he did, and he still grabbed a decent number and percentage of rebounds (unlike my Cavs).
An extension for Payton Pritchard? How? Why? He never got on the court last season so he hasn’t had an opportunity to play up to his talent. So of course Celts want to sign him at likely an underpay. Now these posters who judge Payton “toast” may be right … but if Payton believes in himself I’d hold off, see if he gets rotation minutes, and if not ask r demand to get traded. Trading Smart, Grant, Brogdon & TimeLord means there’s little loyalty.